The Lighthouse at the End of the World
The Lighthouse at the End of the World is an adventure novel by French author Jules Verne. Verne wrote the first draft in 1901. It was first published posthumously in 1905. The plot of the novel involves piracy in the South Atlantic during the mid-19th century, with a theme of survival in extreme circumstances, and events centering on an isolated lighthouse. Verne was inspired by the real lighthouse at the Isla de los Estados, Argentina, near Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn.
The Lighthouse at the End of the World
1898 photo of the actual Lighthouse San Juan del Salvamento
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.
Portrait by Étienne Carjat, c. 1884
Painting of Nantes from Île Feydeau, around the time of Verne's birth
The Lycée Royal in Nantes (now the Georges-Clemenceau), where Verne studied
Aristide Hignard